Naturally prepared jerky products are generally made with cut strips of striate muscle meat. However, the process is time consuming and the finished thickness of the jerky is established by the initial cutting of the meat.
Jerky products may also be produced from a ground meat composition that is solidified to provide a loaf or sheet which can be cut into individual strips. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,421 to Morgan and U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,002 to Scaglione et al., extruders may be used to form ground beef compositions into a loaf or strip. The solidifying may be by freezing or other solidifying means such as drying, cooking, or combinations thereof with freezing.
Combining raw, frozen, or chilled comminuted meats and other similar meat products with farinaceous material components to form an expanded snack product or a flat strip of jerky-like product using a high-temperature, short-time food extruder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,584 to Ray. The jerky-like product has a starch content of about 40% to 80% by weight prior to extrusion and a protein content of about 17-20% in the extrudate.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,904,495 and 4,997,671, both to Spanier, disclose a dog snack that includes 12 to about 30% by weight of gelatin; at least one acidulant; at least one cereal starch-containing agent; at least one release agent; at least one taste agent; at least one sugar; salt and water. Some of the gelatin may be replaced with 0.01 to 8% by weight of wheat gluten. The cereal starch-containing agent may be about 5-20% by weight of wheat starch. The taste agent is about 10 to about 30% by weight of beef, liver, or poultry meat meal or powder. The dog food is in molded form.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,099 to Gellman et al. discloses a canine biscuit that contains meat and a farinaceous material. A preferred biscuit dough contains about 50-60% by weight of wheat flour; about 5-10% by weight of soybean meal; about 3-20% by weight of meat and bone meal; about 1-5% by weight of wheat meal; about 1-5% by weight of animal fat; and about 20-30% by weight of water. The dough may be sheeted followed by rotary molding.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,029 to Karwowski et al. discloses a jerky product containing meat. Frozen meat is comminuted and then heated. The cooked meat is then cooled. A binding agent is added to the cooked meat. The binding agent may be 1-20% by weight of a starch, such as wheat starch, and guar gum. The binding agent is mixed with the cooked meat and seasonings and fillers to obtain a dough. The filler may be wheat germ or wheat gluten. The meat-based dough may be rotary molded to form pieces. The moldable compositions may comprise at least about 50% by weight of meat based upon the weight of the dough. The water activity or relative humidity of the jerky product is less than about 0.85.
As the length of a food product increases and its width and thickness decrease, the food product becomes more susceptible to breakage. The thin, strip-shaped food products of the present invention are flexible, have reduced breakage during and after packaging, and have a high meat content. The high meat content increases palatability in comparison to extruded food products. In addition, the strip-shaped food products have a soft, moist texture over time. Angled die cups may be used in the production of the strip-shaped products of the present invention. The angled die cups allow for less strain on the dough strip during rotary molding. The dough strip is lifted from a corner or end of the strip and peeled off of the die roll rather than being removed longitudinally which may cause a large bend to occur. Thus, the angled die cups allow for easier extraction of the food products from the die cavities.